All Mode
Experience a virtual reality film from the perspectives of 5 different people.
A virtual reality film installation called ‘The Doghouse’ was presented at the Flatpack Film Festival in Birmingham, U.K.
Be a Star in a VR Movie (image credit: skammekrogen.dk)
The installation consists of five Oculus Rifts that participants can choose from—this way, they can be a specific character at a dinner table. Each headset shows the point of view of a different character.
Bringing Your Girlfriend Home to Meet the Family
The story of the film is a simple and common one: bringing your girlfriend home to meet the family. In this case, it’s the younger brother with the special guest.
Slowly Getting at the Truth from Different Perspectives
The fun part is the fact that for each Oculus Rift VR set chosen, the viewer can hear the
Virtual Reality Family Dinner Drama (image credit: skammekrogen.dk)
character’s internal monologue and see the story from a different angle, with specific details popping up along the way. As the viewer gets to try each seat around the dinner table, the story is fully revealed and the experience completed. The idea of slowly getting “1/5 of the truth” as the producer Mads Damsbo describes the process, is indeed an interesting approach to showing “a subjective reality”.
Unconventional Filming
The writer and director of the film, Johan Knattrup Jensen, was thrilled to develop the project. This was despite the fact that that his team was forced to abandon traditional film crews and lights in favor of novel techniques. For example, using the camera for 360 degree coverage basically breaks the common 180-degree rule of filmmaking.
You Become a Character In the Film
As he points out, “you experience, what the actor experiences. As if you were there. You see, what the actor sees, and you hear, what the actor hears. So you, by the help of the actor, you become a character in the film.”
An Innovative, Unique Experience
The crew was proud and really excited to demonstrate that VR could find a good place in the entertainment industry and even in the art film world. A new form of storytelling, one that implies the use of VR equipment, could be born.
By taking this approach, it becomes more obvious how real the ‘reality’ in VR actually is. The sensation of being an almost active part of the story and seeing it happening before your eyes, while experiencing several points of view is overwhelming. Like traveling for a long time and then coming back to your self, although the whole experience takes no more than the 18 minutes of the film.
Watch the preview video below. And to see it in person, check out the official website for dates.
https://vimeo.com/86497104
Featured image credit: skammekrogen.dk